I once worked at a company that started serving dinner in the corporate cafeteria.
They announced it under the guise of convenience. “Now you can have dinner options you can bring home to your family!”
Despite the upbeat email, everyone at the company knew this was a terrible sign.
Let’s be honest, what family wants you to bring home a styrofoam container of office cafeteria spaghetti and sadness? Have you ever eaten lunch in a corporate cafeteria (that wasn’t Facebook or Google) and thought, “I wish I could have this for dinner, too! You know who would love eating this? My family!”
No, the real reason they started serving dinner in the cafeteria was that I worked at a company that valued workaholism. Workaholism is dangerous because it disguises itself as a character trait. You’re just a hard worker!
[Tweet “Workaholism is dangerous because it disguises itself as a character trait. You’re a hard worker!”]
The company I worked for hoped that in addition to eating lunch at your desk, you could now eat dinner there too.
I knew in that moment, I had a bad job.
You’ve had a bad job, too.
When did you know? What was the situation that made it obvious? What funny thing happened that made you think, “Oh no, this is one of those terrible jobs from the Dilbert comics.” Or, “This job makes the paper company in the television show ‘the Office’ seem normal.”
I’m working on a funny idea about bad jobs and I’d love to hear your real life examples.
I don’t want to hear about specific people or specific company names, “My boss, Brenda Smith, had breath that smelled like rock lobster and she was a close talker.” Let’s not gossip, let’s commiserate.
Let’s have a little fun with the bad jobs we’ve all had. I think a little humor might take out some of the sting.
So what’s the worst job you’ve had?
What was a sign it was a bad job?
Answer in the comments!